Cedarville Magazine, Fall 2020

PANDEMIC PREPARED Even before the decision was made to send students home and transition to all online learning, a committee of faculty and staff began meeting to evaluate what was happening with COVID-19 around the world. The Campus Health committee, chaired by Doug Chisholm, Director of Campus Security, had formed 11 years prior during the H1N1 flu pandemic. “Our committee met several times in late February and early March and reviewed the policy we created during H1N1,” Chisholm said. “We provided information to the President and the Cabinet so they could begin to talk about ‘what if’ scenarios, before there was any idea of shutting everything down in the state.” As the situation worsened in the country, and the decision was made to finish the school year remotely, the health committee shifted its focus from this school year to the next. “When the government shut the state down, we began to turn attention to our own issues, what we were going to have to do in the future,” Chisholm shared. “In April, those meetings turned into an actual planning committee process, and we ended up calling ourselves the Return to Campus (RTC) committee, which is today the COVID Advisory and Response Effort (CARE) team. We began to focus our attention on what we would need to have in place to have everyone back on campus.” And quite a process it’s been. The entire Cedarville experience, from residence life to chapel to classroom instruction to eating lunch in the dining hall had to be reimagined with COVID-19 safety in mind. Subcommittees have focused on pandemic-related adjustments, from signage promoting physical distancing, wearing masks, hand sanitizing, and other COVID-19 health best practices to the reconfiguring of Getting Started Weekend to a touchless endeavor, the presence of hand sanitizing stations in every building on campus, and the installation of acrylic shields in computer labs, the bookstore, Centennial Library, and other places where direct face-to-face interaction is common or physical distancing is not easy to achieve. “At the beginning, we were taking questions from Cabinet and other groups on campus about COVID-19,” noted Misti Grimson, Assistant Professor of Physician Assistant Studies and Medical Director for the physician assistant program scheduled to begin in 2023. She also serves on the CARE team. “With something as multifaceted and detailed as COVID, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds,” she added. “My overarching theme was to look at the big picture. Our goal is to bring the students back and protect the vulnerable. Ultimately, we wanted to do what would help Cedarville and give the glory to God.” “Compared to other types of social environments, universities are highly complex,” said Zach Jenkins, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and an infectious diseases expert who serves on the CARE team. “As we approached this semester, we had to consider how to go about implementing COVID practices for classrooms, laboratories, gymnasiums, residence halls, office areas, dining halls, chapel, and even outdoor spaces across the campus. Each of these areas had unique considerations and applicable regulations that we had to factor into our planning.” As final decisions were made regarding protocols for returning to campus, it became clear that a substantial communication effort would be required to provide visual reminders and guides to support best practices. “In less than six weeks, the COVID Signage Task Team developed and implemented a plan to post thousands of signs across campus,” noted Chad Jackson, Creative Director in the Marketing and Communications Division and team leader. “The icons and sign templates were also made available to the campus community so they had the resources they needed Ultimately, we wanted to do what would help Cedarville and give the glory to God. Misti Grimson 8 | Cedarville Magazine